Cataloochee Reunion

  Today Cataloochee Valley is part of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Prior to the Park’s formation in 1934, the valley was occupied by more than a thousand people in several communities who were subsistence farmers.

In the Great Depression many of them had sold their land to several lumber companies, which had almost clear-cut the land, and were desperate to find ways to survive the hard times.  As the creation of the Park progressed, all the land was eventually bought and all the people, some life lifetime tenancy, gradually moved away.

Every year (except for COVID 19) on the second Sunday in August, descendants of those settlers gather in the old Palmer’s Chapel Methodist Church to worship, visit, eat, and remember.   Dinner on the grounds follows the service. My Uncle Gudger Palmer was born and raised in the valley.  His childhood home is currently being repurposed as a National Park visitor center here.  He died in 2012 at the age of 103.

Only about 150 people can squeeze into the little church building.  Others look in the windows or just visit outside saving up for the picnic time.

This year’s preacher was The Rev. David Russell. David and I went to WAYNESVILLE Township High School together and both played in the band.

The organizer and presider at each reunion for many years is Steve Woody.  Steve’s father, Jonathan was born in the valley. Later he was President of First National Bank in WAYNESVILLE and my father worked there with him for nearly thirty years.

A great feature of this year’s gathering was that North Carolina Secretary of State, Elaine Marshall, came for the Governor to present Steve with membership in the Order of the Long Leaf Pine, the highest civilian order that can be bestowed in a citizen of North Carolina.  Elaine is a frequent attendee at the reunion.  This puts Steve in company with the likes of Andy Griffith, Dean Smith, Maya Angelou and many other stars in the North Carolina galaxy.

Before the service ends, the names of descendants who have died during the pats year are read and the church bell is tolled for each of them.  In the afternoon people revisit their ancestors’ home places and many take home jugs of water from the same source as that used by those ancestors.

It is a deep time of memory and we shall return next year.